Tony Scott: 0:21

Welcome to The Jay Franze Show, a behind-the-curtain look at the entertainment industry, with insights you can't pay for and stories you've never heard. Now here's your host, Jay Franze.

Jay Franze: 0:49

And we are coming at you live. I am Jay Franze and this is your source for the latest news, reviews and interviews. So if you would like to join in, comment or fire off any questions, please head over to jayfranzycom. All right, my friends, tonight we have a very special guest. I said it once, I will say it again we have a very special guest. We have an actual country music recording artist with us tonight, hailing from the great state of Arizona. We have Sherry Rowe. Sherry, my friend, how are you?

Shari Rowe: 1:18

I'm doing great, Jane. Thanks, Shari, my friend. How are you? I'm doing great, Jay. Thanks for having me on the show.

Jay Franze: 1:21

It is my pleasure. I cannot wait to talk to you tonight. All right, I've been diving deep into your music and I have some questions.

Shari Rowe: 1:29

All right, fire away.

Jay Franze: 1:30

Let's start with Knight Riding.

Shari Rowe: 1:33

Yeah, what was it like working with Jamie Tate? So Jamie is gosh. I've worked with him on several projects and he's become a friend. He makes me feel really comfortable in the studio. You know, especially tracking that vocal. He works great with the band. He has a lot of great relationships that he's built with the players that he brings in. It just creates a really good atmosphere in the studio. And when you've worked with someone a few times on vocals and they get to know kind of your tells, they know when to push, when you need a break, when they know you have like a better one in you and you know it's all those things that make a great record. It's that relationship.

Jay Franze: 2:14

So let's take that a step further. When you're working with him, does he take a very hands-on approach?

Shari Rowe: 2:23

He does, but he's a really good communicator.

Shari Rowe: 2:24

So he's uh, he's just very good at communicating, which it you can finesse something and you can really get you know, especially working with creatives, because I've been in a little bit in the production end of things too, and when you're working with creatives, I think getting to know someone and knowing what's going to bring out the best in them, being able to use those social skills, is really important. And Jamie's great at that, so he's hands-on, but he's really great at knowing how to get what he's looking for out of the artist.

Jay Franze: 2:55

Does he play any instruments himself?

Shari Rowe: 2:58

That I don't know. I have never asked him that and I've never seen him in that capacity. But yeah, he definitely knows how to convey what he's needing from each player.

Jay Franze: 3:08

Well, you mentioned that he brings in the musicians based on his relationships. Do you remember any of the musicians that were brought in?

Shari Rowe: 3:16

Well, Tommy Harden on drums.

Jay Franze: 3:18

Drummer, for sure, yeah.

Shari Rowe: 3:23

And well, tommy harden on drums, drummer for sure, yeah, and session leader. He's killer. You know only guitar, or jeff king?

Jay Franze: 3:26

sorry, jeff king jeff king's another one, holy cow. He's amazing, isn't? He yeah he's just the funniest guy in the world too oh my gosh, jimmy mattingly on fiddle.

Shari Rowe: 3:35

I mean we, you know jamie works. I mean you know nash is like so many A players. It's like no matter who you have in the session. They've got a long list of who they've played for, who they've, you know, maybe toured with, and so I've been really, really fortunate to have amazing musicians in that room.

Jay Franze: 3:55

It's funny. I mean you mentioned those, just those few, and I've had a chance to work with all of them and they are just amazing people. But you mentioned Jeff, and Jeff is just the funniest guy in the world to me.

Shari Rowe: 4:06

You know, I didn't get to know him very well, you know. You know, sessions sometimes are just like they go by.

Shari Rowe: 4:10

So fast a couple of sessions of mine. But, yeah, just phenomenal. And these guys you know, and you know how it is like they can play anything. They have this amazing encyclopedia of stuff to draw from from all the years of experience. That's what makes them so great on the fly, like that, you know. It's like a lot of people can emulate things that they hear and and play covers of it and they're great players. But to be able to create on the fly under that, you know, with the time pressure, and I think that's the most beautiful thing about what those players bring, but they're so chill about it. It's like you know that just comes, I think, with the seasoning and maturity and just knowing you know.

Shari Rowe: 4:51

Well, they do it all day, every day, yeah, and they're so down to earth about it and it's like that's the best.

Jay Franze: 4:57

Yeah, those guys are great and you know, and Jeff has worked as a session leader on a lot of the sessions I've been on and Jeff is just one of those guys whose sense of humor keeps everybody calm. So that's what I remember most about Jeff. And he's out with Brooks and Dunn so he's on the road with them and I had a chance to take my daughter. He gave us passes. We went to see him play with Brooks and Dunn and took her up on stage and just gave her the tour around and she was nine years old at the time.

Jay Franze: 5:27

So, she just had a blast.

Shari Rowe: 5:29

I love it.

Jay Franze: 5:29

Do you remember what studio you were in?

Shari Rowe: 5:32

Well, gosh, we've been at a ruckus room mostly, yeah, but ruckus room was recently sold. Jamie isn't. Jamie isn't doing it anymore, and I know Caleb Fisher who's in that space now, but I haven't had a chance to talk to Caleb about that. I mean, I would love to be able to go back to that room just because I have such history there and memories there, and, uh, I'm going to miss Jamie, that's for sure. But you know Caleb's been putting out some great stuff. I think he was set up out of his house before. It's Farmland, I believe, is the name of the studio.

Jay Franze: 6:07

Jamie's worked at the Ruckus Room forever.

Shari Rowe: 6:10

Yeah.

Jay Franze: 6:11

He was doing all the demos out of there. I mean, he's been mixing demos out of there for years.

Shari Rowe: 6:17

He's very, very talented, yeah, but you, you know I get it. Man, life, life just uh took him down a different road and he's ready for something new.

Jay Franze: 6:26

so I get it. You talk about the people coming in and out, in and out when you're in the studio. Life moves fast. When you're in the studio and jamie has to keep up with the speed of the way things go, especially at the rook is from yeah where they're doing so many demos in a day.

Jay Franze: 6:43

He's got to just churn them out, and churn them out, and churn them out. So for him to be able to move that fast. It doesn't matter how good of an engineer you are, but to be able to move that fast is just impressive.

Shari Rowe: 6:53

It's very impressive and when you're there you don't feel rushed, so kind of like what you said about Jeff, with a sense of humor, keeping everybody calm. Jamie's really good with that too. He has a great sense of humor and he's just very chill and you know, he's probably thinking of a million things and he's got this thing he's got to keep up with, but he's not putting that on anybody else, which is a beautiful thing, yeah.

Jay Franze: 7:19

And I mean, that's a small little machine. There too, I mean, they have multiple rooms and they take projects from one room and then move it over to the next room when the next people come into the first room. So it's just constant movements. It's a very impressive machine they have over there for sure.

Shari Rowe: 7:35

Yeah, for sure.

Jay Franze: 7:36

So I mentioned at the beginning that you're from Arizona. Yeah, so how did you make the connection to the beginning that you're from Arizona?

Shari Rowe: 7:41

Yeah.

Jay Franze: 7:41

So how did you make the connection to the people that are in Nashville?

Shari Rowe: 7:47

Oh man. Well, my first experience with it was I sang with my sister and my sister-in-law in a contemporary Christian trio for a while.

Jay Franze: 7:54

Very nice.

Shari Rowe: 7:56

And we got a deal through Q Records, which was owned by a QVC network and distributed through Atlantic, and our first project was recorded at. This is going way back before Blackbird was Blackbird, it was Creative, so we tracked it there and that was when I first really started building relationships out there with everybody, and I mean everybody was so welcoming and I remember even some of my first co-writes because I, you know, I didn't consider myself a songwriter initially. You know I had this little thing here and there and it was one of my first producers kind of helped me understand the formula and the you know how to put the work in, to take those pieces and make them into something. And and it was so beautiful because he was so excited to teach me that. And I remember when he first kind of showed me he said this is your song, you just do this, this and this. He was like you're a songwriter and he literally had a twinkle in his eye and he was like almost choked up.

Shari Rowe: 8:56

You know I was like that's been my experience with everybody in Nashville and now we have a huge community there, my husband and I. My husband plays bass in the band, so we get to tour together and it's, it's been amazing. I mean, we've lived out there for short spells at a time and we even considered, you know, fully relocating. But you know, to be honest, arizona inspires me so much and it's so much of who I am and I feel like I wouldn't be who I am as an artist if I left here, and so we made the decision a while ago to just keep going back and forth and do our thing and these days it's pretty easy to do.

Shari Rowe: 9:33

Yeah, it is, it is.

Jay Franze: 9:35

What part of Arizona?

Shari Rowe: 9:37

The Northwest Valley, like outside of Phoenix Glendale area, so still kind of in the city but on the outskirts.

Jay Franze: 9:44

I was in Phoenix for quite a while. I went to Arizona.

Shari Rowe: 9:46

State. Oh really yeah.

Jay Franze: 9:49

So all around Phoenix and Glendale and Mason. You know, 122 degrees the day I got there. I know. I have no desire to rush back.

Shari Rowe: 9:59

I'm so sorry you don't get used to that. Yeah, that's still. You know, open the oven door when you're baking cookies, kind of feeling that's what I say, everyone says.

Jay Franze: 10:09

But it's a dry heat. I said well, stick your arm in the oven and tell me how dry it is yeah, no, it doesn't matter once it gets above.

Shari Rowe: 10:16

I think once it's above 110, it's just like just too hot we just recently moved back from California outside of San Francisco, but over the mountain in the desert.

Jay Franze: 10:27

We get up to about 115 every day. Wow, but for some reason it didn't seem as bad as Phoenix. Yeah, I don't know Phoenix just seems like the extreme heat.

Shari Rowe: 10:37

It is for sure, for sure. Yeah, we're seeking shelter in the summer. Every you know, most people are seeking shelter from snow. We don't have that Right. We do. That's. One thing I do love about Arizona is you can. There's a certain time of year when you can water ski in the Valley, snow skiing up in Flag.

Jay Franze: 10:54

So I actually drove to Phoenix and I hit Flagstaff and I got out to pump gas and I was like, wow, this is what they must mean by dry heat. This is nice. It was like 80 degrees. I'm like this is 80 degrees and it feels real nice. A few hours later I was in Phoenix. At the time I had to get out and use a payphone because I'm old and I grabbed the payphone and burnt my hand.

Shari Rowe: 11:17

Oh no.

Jay Franze: 11:22

Okay, it's hot.

Shari Rowe: 11:23

Yeah, you just kept going down down down. It was a good time, though Good time spent there, I did transfer all my classes to nighttime classes, though.

Jay Franze: 11:33

All right, so your first time to Nashville was quite a while ago, if you were a creative yeah, and then you start meeting these people, you start developing this network. So tell me what it was. Well, first of all, let me just go back Christian band. Let's talk about that for a minute. What was that like?

Shari Rowe: 11:51

It was one of those things where, you know, I grew up singing, like as far back as I can remember, just like putting on shows for the family in the living room, the whole thing, right. And so my sister and I were always trying to find harmonies. It just was something we just were drawn to do. And then my sister-in-law my brother is like almost 20 years older than me, so my sister-in-law and my sister and I literally just would sit around. I mean, our spare time was. It was just fun trying to come up with, you know, all these different ways to harmonize and singing, along with with songs on the radio. And then we went to church and we put a song together to sing at church and one thing led to another, literally.

Shari Rowe: 12:32

And, uh, my sister and I were, we started a cleaning business in Scottsdale and we'd clean houses and we'd be in these giant mansions, we'd meet in the kitchen to like write songs, like we'd come up with an idea and I'd be like I know what the next line should be, you know, and we just we loved it. You know, that's just what we did. And, um, one of the houses that we were cleaning that the owner of the house knew somebody, who knew somebody, and she said you know this guy. He was a producer in Nashville and he's out here, he's from here and set up a meeting and we went to his office and we sang and he listened and he was like how did I not know you guys existed? I'm like, well, we weren't really trying to do this, so it just kind of fell into place really and it was great touring, like we did a bunch of Christian festivals, we had a bunch of radio play and went on QVC selling our music, people calling in, you know the whole thing.

Jay Franze: 13:40

That's a whole different approach to selling music, for sure.

Shari Rowe: 13:43

Yeah, it was. It was crazy old school like this really, but really fun, I mean, cause I'm with my family. You know that family harmony, you know, and even though my sister-in-law wasn't related by blood, we just found this blend. That it's still, you know, every once in a while we'll sing together at the holidays and stuff, and. But it's still, you know, every once in a while we'll sing together at the holidays and stuff, and it's just magical when you get to do that.

Jay Franze: 14:04

Tell us a little bit more about that. You talk about just coming up with harmonies. That's not something most people can do. So the fact that not only can you do it, but they sound good and you're coming up and you get a record deal and all that fun stuff- so how did you even find out you were good at harmonies in the first place?

Shari Rowe: 14:28

Oh, that's a good question. I mean I can't remember not doing it. And then I do remember being in choir in like junior high, and this isn't specifically related to harmony, but it kind of made me more like self aware of like oh what, so I can do this thing. You know, you know, sometimes, like in a choir, the director will go like in front of each person, as everyone's saying, just to kind of figure out are you alto soprano? Whatever? You know those kinds of things that they're figuring out. And one day after choir, my teacher pulled me aside and she said you know, you have this really great tone in your voice. Can we put together a solo for you?

Jay Franze: 15:03

for the program and.

Shari Rowe: 15:05

I was like sure, Sure, and it was in Italian, I don't remember the name of it, but it was like an Italian opera thing and I'm like okay, and so we did that and I think that was one of the first times. I actually thought I think it was one of the first times somebody recognized something in me and it wasn't like in the living room with the family, you know, it wasn't mom saying oh you sound beautiful, you know.

Shari Rowe: 15:31

I think it just kind of made me think for a second and I started writing songs not long after that, like they weren't good but they were. I was trying, I wanted to do it. That was the first time I realized I wanted to do it.

Jay Franze: 15:44

So what was the age at that point?

Shari Rowe: 15:48

12. Oh, wow, yeah, yeah, I mean I don't know, I just it's just what I. I take off Cause like we lived in the city we lived in. Glendale, grew up in kind of a not really great area of Arizona, but on the weekends I would go to my brother's property and he had horses, so I'd take off on horseback, follow the canal, bank, riverbed, and I just remember writing songs. I can't really say I knew at the time I was becoming a songwriter, I was just singing and coming up with words that rhymed.

Jay Franze: 16:22

I can only assume that at that age it's basically lyrics and melody. Yeah, exactly If you're able to sing, then you're taking those lyrics and you're able to make a melody out of it.

Shari Rowe: 16:34

Yeah.

Jay Franze: 16:34

So then, when you meet up with musicians later, like your days in Nashville is that how you do it now. You come up with lyrics, you sing, and then somebody pulls the chord changes out of that.

Shari Rowe: 16:46

Mostly yeah, and I've taken guitar lessons and I've applied myself. But the thing that I realized early on, I kind of got I don't want to say thrown into it, because that almost sounds negative. I'm so grateful. But everything took off really fast and I found myself surrounded by these amazing musicians. So anytime I tried to put time in on the guitar I was like you know, it's going to take me years to have this talent to draw on that all of these people have around me.

Shari Rowe: 17:17

So for the most part I'll write lyric and melody. I know enough about music, just from what I've gleaned over time, to understand. You know chord structure and you know tension and you know, like, all the different ways you can convey emotion through. You know chord progression. I understand you know hooks, melodic hooks, vocal hooks, I understand all that kind of stuff. But I mostly say you know this is what I'm trying to convey and I'll get together with somebody to do like that scratch track and really just kind of talk through pre-production and think about where I want the song to end up and kind of help lay the groundwork that way. But I'm definitely utilizing their encyclopedia of chord structures. So, and I have found, I've learned over the years that there are a lot of. There are several writers who write that way, you know, and I used to think of it as a handicap and then I learned that, you know, that's just, that's my method and it works.

Jay Franze: 18:17

We all have strengths, right Strengths and weaknesses.

Shari Rowe: 18:19

Exactly.

Jay Franze: 18:21

So you mentioned your record deal. How long did that last, the Christian record deal?

Shari Rowe: 18:27

Oh gosh, we did. We did one full length project and and then after that we all just kind of, we didn't go our separate ways. We're still for our family, so we're still close. Our separate ways, we're still for our family, so we're still close. But we just did different things.

Shari Rowe: 18:45

My sister is in banking now and yeah of course, very proud of her and my sister-in-law is. She just really enjoys the simple life. So she's like she's got horses and she, you know she travels a lot and she's, you know, that's, that's. She's in her lane. She sings a little bit here and there, but I was kind of the one who wasn't done.

Jay Franze: 19:07

So you decided to move on and go into the country world. Yeah, so how quick of a turnaround was that.

Shari Rowe: 19:14

There was a bit of a gap because it was during a time my dad was battling cancer and my mom and I were his caregivers. So it was like, right at this, right around the same time, and I was, you know, honestly, I loved singing with my sisters and you know, you're kind of, you know soul searching and trying to figure out what you're meant to do, and so I. That process took a couple of years, honestly. So I thought process took a couple years, honestly, and I started writing again and, to be honest, it was hard getting back into writing after losing my dad. That was like one of those. I was just grieving and going through those emotions and then I was able to sort of process some of that through writing and in fact it's crazy, but Even moving forward these years later, I just finished a very important song to me about my dad that I started back then.

Shari Rowe: 20:08

It was very hard for me to finish it because I felt like, no matter what I said, it wasn't enough, it wasn't truly telling the story. It almost felt like too sacred to kind of. I felt like I was limiting it by putting it in this song. And then a good friend of mine, who's also a collaborator fiddle player in my band, stephen Bowman. He told me you know he's like you know you have to remember this is the only song you're going to write about your dad. It's like you don't have to say everything in one song and I don't know that. Just kind of like that opened it up for me, freed me up, finished the song, actually brought him in on the co-write and finished it with him.

Jay Franze: 20:50

What were the emotions like when you were writing that song?

Shari Rowe: 20:55

There were some times I actually I had to stop like it, like it got me and I'm like okay, yeah, so it's interesting because my dad, uh, my dad had a rough life and you know how it is with all families, Like we're all just trying to do our best with what we have. We're trying to help, you know, the next generation be better than before and learn. And I love my dad, you know, when he passed away we were, we were very close, but growing up it wasn't necessarily that way and, as I said, we lived in the city and horseback riding, going up to the mountains in Arizona, camping. That's always been a real escape for me and early on that was established because we lived this life in the city, in a really bad part of town and, you know, going through a lot as a family. But then every so often we'd escape up to the woods and in the woods we were different.

Shari Rowe: 21:51

In the woods there was a sparkle in my dad's eye, you know, and and so the song is called the woods and it's really a story about redemption. It's really about, you know, a prodigal situation. I think we all were kind of our best selves up there on the mountain. So those emotions for me writing that song were it was very freeing to be able to kind of give my dad's story some life and maybe help people to see him and maybe people like him in their humanity, Like he had his story and he had a lot of, a lot that he went through. That kind of will definitely affected us, but there was redemption there.

Jay Franze: 22:41

How old was your dad?

Shari Rowe: 22:43

He was 70 when he passed 70. Yeah, All right. I mean, even if I was asked earlier today. You know what do I do? Just like to stay grounded, and if I'm not up in the woods for a couple of weeks off grid, I'm just going outside my backyard for 10 minutes Like I got to see the sky.

Jay Franze: 23:03

I got to like, put your feet in grass.

Shari Rowe: 23:06

Yeah, I got to put my feet in the grass. That's funny.

Jay Franze: 23:12

All right, so you've mentioned it a couple of times now. Growing up in a not so nice neighborhood, yeah, how do you feel that affected your songwriting? How do you?

Shari Rowe: 23:22

feel that affected your songwriting. Well, I'd have to say I'd have to speak to more how it affected me in general, Because, hopefully, you know, I've really been trying to be so intentional about being authentic in what I'm putting out and I think how it affected me, it helped me to have empathy. I really do. I think how it affected me it helped me to have empathy. I really do. Especially, you know, I'm a person of faith and I don't think I could have gotten through a lot of things that I did without that personally. And I think it's odd because, you know, I go back to those neighborhoods sometimes and I'll say, you know, that's the house, that's one of the houses we lived in, and some people are like, whoa, it's like there's bars on the window. You know that's the house, that's one of the houses we lived in, and some people are like, whoa, it's like there's bars on the window, you know, and I'm like, yeah, like, but there's a certain comfort being there.

Jay Franze: 24:09

Right, it's where you grew up.

Shari Rowe: 24:11

It's where I grew up and I think it helped me to be grounded, to understand that at any given time, in any room, there's somebody going through stuff, you know. It helped me to not feel, you know, disconnected, because I was just seeing, I was experiencing a lot. I was seeing a lot just very real, you know, and so I think that helped me to be maybe more relatable and a little more vulnerable when I'm talking to people and listening to people well, that's a good point.

Jay Franze: 24:42

Do you think the ability to relate helps you when you sit down in a room full of writers?

Shari Rowe: 24:48

Absolutely yeah, yeah, for sure.

Jay Franze: 24:50

Do you think you're able to connect with their struggles because of that?

Shari Rowe: 24:56

Yeah, I think so. I mean, I would like to think so. That's who I want to be and so, yes, I think that that is how I grew up has played into me wanting to be present for people and hear them and see them and be seen well, there's something about when you sit down to write a song.

Jay Franze: 25:17

Everybody wants to write the hit song or the next big thing which a lot of times is emotionless. It's just something you can sing to it's just a poppy thing, but to be able to sit down and take it to a deeper level. Those are the songs that really connect with people and they actually go a step higher than those poppy songs, because not only are they good songs, but then they connect and people relate to them.

Jay Franze: 25:41

So I think it says something to have that kind of connection and to have a history like yours. If you don't have something to draw on, then you're just guessing and it's almost fake.

Shari Rowe: 25:51

Yeah, and you know there is a formula for a commercial song and you know, and I get that, and at times I have to remind myself, you know, that like the lighthearted, fun stuff is great. I mean, when I'm up on stage with the band and there's all that energy and you know it's all fun, right, then it's like that's magical too in its own way, you know. So I, I know I need to have you know to be diversified in what I'm putting out, but, but especially lately, I've been leaning into the authenticity and the vulnerability because, yeah, I mean, we all have something to say and we all have our own story and I can't tell somebody else's story.

Jay Franze: 26:32

Why would you want?

Shari Rowe: 26:33

to. I wouldn't want to.

Jay Franze: 26:35

You mentioned, there's a formula to writing a hit song, and that's especially true when you're in Nashville. Everything is a formula. I mean from the writing to the recording, to the studio. I mean, it's a process for a reason and don't get me wrong it's the best process in the world. It has the best musicians in the world and the most talented singers. However, you're not from Nashville. You're from Arizona.

Jay Franze: 27:01

So do you feel like the fact that you are outside of the system helps you stay grounded and write in a different manner than people inside the system?

Shari Rowe: 27:12

That's a great thought. Maybe I honestly, though, I seek out even like in Nashville, like I'm a big fan of Sean McConnell and Brett Shiroki and Natalie Hemby, and I, just I I I'm drawn to people who write about deep things. So, you know, I I think I think it helps me stay grounded in a way that I don't lose my identity as far as my background and my history. I'm not being changed. I'm staying in my environment, so I'm sure that has an effect on it reality, even with this new stuff that I'm putting out I've been saying it out loud even to my husband and different people I'm working with I'm like I'm not going to pigeon hole myself into an indie corner just because I want to be artistic and vulnerable and kind of explore some things. I understand that there's an audience and I understand there's a balance.

Jay Franze: 28:19

That's just it. There is a balance. You don't have to be way off in the corner to be artistic.

Shari Rowe: 28:26

Right.

Jay Franze: 28:26

Every song I've ever written has been commercial, but I like to think I take an artistic approach to the way I write a song.

Shari Rowe: 28:33

Yeah.

Jay Franze: 28:34

I think all of your songs are very commercial, very easy to to sing along to. So I don't think you're off in a corner. I think that you're taking creativity to a new level. So it's not just surface creativity, you're taking it deeper. You've mentioned your husband a couple times and my wife is called wife. However, does your husband have a name?

Shari Rowe: 28:57

He absolutely does, Kevin. Kevin is an amazing bass player and we're a great team. I'm we're just really blessed, Like we love being together because we're together a lot Like we play music together we started businesses together. We've, you know, we, we are really, we're really blessed.

Jay Franze: 29:19

That's a good thing, right. It's good to have that connection.

Shari Rowe: 29:29

So what is that dynamic when you're on the road? Our band is literally a band family. Like the guys in my band are, like my brothers, I feel like I've always just been the girl in a room full of guys and it's been great.

Shari Rowe: 29:39

Everybody has respect for one another. We eat together. We, you know, even for rehearsal. You know everybody eats first. Everybody's talking about what's happening in their life first and you know if we need to stop everything and just talk about what somebody's going through, I mean we just really love each other. It's. It's pretty cool, yeah.

Jay Franze: 29:59

It's very cool. Yeah, my wife and I, I would. I would take her every day of the week wherever I go. If I could, even though she's a pain in my neck, I would still take her.

Shari Rowe: 30:07

What is your wife's name?

Jay Franze: 30:09

It's Jennifer.

Shari Rowe: 30:11

Jennifer However.

Jay Franze: 30:12

I can probably count on one hand the amount of times I've ever called her by that. Yeah, it's always the wife. You know, my grandfather always called my grandmother wife and it's just stuck. It's just what I do that's great. But I met my wife in the industry. I worked as an engineer and my wife worked as a graphic artist and a photographer. So we met working on the same projects and we ended up dating. And here we are, 15 plus years later.

Shari Rowe: 30:41

Awesome.

Jay Franze: 30:42

But when we travel around, we each have our role in how we do things. She drives all day long on her own, but if we're together, I have to be the one driving.

Shari Rowe: 30:52

Yeah.

Jay Franze: 30:52

Not because of me, but she would prefer that I drive and honestly, I'd rather drive because I like driving, there you go, we all have our roles for sure. So tell me about the rest of the band.

Shari Rowe: 31:07

Oh man, alan Wells on lead guitar. He was a metal shredder before he was a picker and he's just like phenomenal. I mean, the guy's just nuts. He's great and great sense of humor. And you know just a really, really great guy, sean Raynard on Rhythm, electric and Acoustic and Vocals. He grew up singing Southern Gospel, so his harmonies are spot on and he's just, he's like my little brother just harassing me all the time and I love it, wouldn't have it any other way.

Shari Rowe: 31:39

Rocky is my MD and he's on keys and he's just phenomenal, you know he's. He's great at what he does and he's so invested. You know the guys are so invested, I mean I thank God every day that they care so much about their roles and they love making things better. And Rocky is great at that MD role. He's always thinking of different transitions and different creative things and he's just, you know, just love it. And he's, you know, all the guys are there at the end of these long shows that we sometimes play and they're there winding cables and loading gear and just, you know, we're still laughing and harassing each other the whole time. And David on drums I mean David's like he was a drum tech in Nashville for quite a while and he and his wife Priscilla just had a baby, and you know, newest little band member.

Jay Franze: 32:34

So were they all out in Arizona with you, or are they in Nashville?

Shari Rowe: 32:38

So most of them are. Bowman, my fiddle player, lives out there. He lived out here. He's kind of gone back and forth quite a bit. Our house is like his second home, so he flies back and forth a lot. I actually co-wrote and co-produced his most recent project that he did. It's kind of an Indy Americana thing and we tracked some of it here and some of it in Nashville. So have a studio here and in the house and that was that was really freeing for me to. I was really excited to do that project with him and when we were done I kind of realized that I was able to be more vulnerable, helping someone tell their story, and I was able to kind of like put these stories together that were very, very honest. Not that I haven't been honest in my writing, but it definitely took. It kind of took down some walls for me, for myself, for the stuff that I'm about to put out. So that was that was a really cool lesson to learn from that.

Jay Franze: 33:34

Well, again, I think it's all that experience and the you know, everything you've done up to this point has led to your ability to be able to do that. Yeah, so you mentioned you helped him produce the record and you mentioned that you have a studio in your home.

Shari Rowe: 33:48

I want to talk about those two things real quick.

Jay Franze: 33:49

What type of producer do you find yourself being?

Shari Rowe: 33:52

It was a fairly new role for me, other than just like sideline chiming in before.

Shari Rowe: 33:56

This was like more official, you know, and so I kind of got my feet wet on the process this time and I would say it was very exciting for me because I've had a lot of ideas.

Shari Rowe: 34:09

It kind of opened up the gate for me to just kind of like oh, you know, wow, this is, this is a blast.

Shari Rowe: 34:15

Like I've never picked apart everything as much as I have on this, because I've never picked apart everything as much as I have on this, because you go in and you track in a session and those sessions do move really fast and you can have an idea of pre-production but there's not a whole lot of really contemplating the direction of things in those sessions when you're doing something as an independent artist like Bowman was that's his last name, it's really his last name, he's a fiddle player, it's really his last name, he's a fiddle player, it's not made up. But it was fun to have the time to really pick things apart and layer things in and kind of build the songs over weeks and kind of live with the version that you had and go. You know, I think maybe we should go back and do this. So what kind of producer? I think that's yet to be determined. I feel like it was a great experience and Bowman and I were really happy with the end result.

Jay Franze: 35:07

So Well you mentioned your ability to help craft the songs.

Shari Rowe: 35:12

Yeah.

Jay Franze: 35:12

Did you help out with harmonies and melodies?

Shari Rowe: 35:15

Yeah, I sang back up on everything and I went out with him when he had one of his single releases and we did some rounds together and I was able to jump in and sing with him on them and so, yeah, bowman and I, we figured out man, we're great friends and he's an amazingly talented musician. But he's honestly my favorite collaborator. Like we just we make a really good team. He's he's really great at he thinks outside the box, or I should say outside of what my box would be, and we compliment each other well in that way and he he really appreciates what I bring to the table and I think when you have that collaboration and you know each one is bringing something that you probably couldn't come up with on your own it's it makes for such a fun experience creatively.

Jay Franze: 36:04

Well, it's also good too when you're both at a certain level of talent and then you both have respect for each other and you've both been friends long enough that you are able to open up to each other, so it allows a lot of comfort.

Shari Rowe: 36:19

Yes.

Jay Franze: 36:19

And that way you can sit there and you can work with each other and you can give ideas without feeling like you're going to hurt somebody's feelings yeah, yeah, safe place yeah, of course. Now let's talk about the studio for a second. Is the studio intended for writing purposes and demos, or is it intended for you to to be able to actually craft a record in the future?

Shari Rowe: 36:40

Yeah, well, it's in transition. The room isn't built for crafting a record, because it wasn't originally intended for that, but we find ourselves in this spot where there is a need for that here, not even just for ourselves, but I also co-host a radio show called Arizona on the Rise with my manager and his wife, and Kevin produces the show and edits it down, and we're finding a lot of up and coming talent here and it's really fun for me to be able to get to know some of these artists that maybe I've just passed and you know, coming on and off stage and get to know their story and kind of see what they're writing and to kind of help facilitate that. So we're about to have some construction projects right here.

Jay Franze: 37:29

Trust me, that part will be fun.

Shari Rowe: 37:31

Yeah, yeah, kevin's built a couple studios in other places for people. He is a builder. I mean, we've built homes before and stuff like that, so it'll be fun to dive in that into that again I always have my rooms built because not my thing.

Jay Franze: 37:47

You mentioned the artists that you cross coming on and off stage. Let's talk about some of the people you've had an opportunity to open up for yeah so one that I haven't heard the name in quite a while but I absolutely love as an artist is Leanne Rimes.

Shari Rowe: 38:04

Yeah.

Jay Franze: 38:05

What was that like?

Shari Rowe: 38:07

Oh my gosh, it was a blast. It was at Scottsdale Culinary Festival, which is always. That's a huge event, you know, and it's fun. I mean it's any, any opportunity like that is. I mean you know you're hoping to get to meet them and hang out and kind of pick their brain or you know anything like that. But even just sharing the platform, sharing the ticket at all, is like it's an honor and it's just one more opportunity to kind of refine your show and get better.

Jay Franze: 38:37

I saw a picture of you with Reba. Did you play alongside Reba or open for Reba?

Shari Rowe: 38:43

So she was supposed to perform that night, but she actually had strep throat that night and she was also emceeing. So she was emceeing Celebrity Fight Night and Barry Manilow was playing that night, brian McNight, barry.

Shari Rowe: 39:00

Manilow was awesome, by the way. Oh, my goodness, yeah, toscano, like it was a really cool. I mean, that night was fantastic. In fact, that was the weekend I was releasing Night Riding and Jimmy Walker started Celebrity Fight Night with Muhammad Ali and it was from Parkinson's Research and they were really good friends and it was the 25th anniversary and you know the song's coming out, and so I was able to sing that song the weekend that it came out and I'm looking down at this like star-studded crowd. I mean Quincy Jones is like in front of me Right there and Reva and everybody.

Shari Rowe: 39:37

You know it was one of those magical nights Like that was. It was one of those magical nights Like that was. It was the red carpet with Kevin and the whole thing. And Reba was wonderful. I talked with her backstage. She was so sweet. She's so down to earth, so nice yeah.

Jay Franze: 39:51

Well, you mentioned Jeff King earlier. That's his primary gig, is going out with Reba.

Shari Rowe: 39:56

Yep.

Jay Franze: 39:58

Yeah, all right. You travel around with your husband, your bandmates and you get to hang out with some of the some of the best people in the industry. Tell me the craziest story you have.

Shari Rowe: 40:07

I mean okay. So we did get pulled over by the German police when we were heading back from Poland to Germany to fly back home after touring, and that was a fun experience, you know, and and there was one girl that was traveling with us, you know, and and uh, there was one girl that was traveling with us and she literally had the flu. I mean she, her fever was probably like 103 and she was sleeping. And they, these guys, had to be like seven feet tall, like these police officers. They did not want to joke around, they were not there to small talk, so they, they like nudged her and got her up, cause we all, we had to pull all the luggage out from underneath the bus, then go through everything to ask us a bunch of questions, and then Kevin decides, before they leave, to shout we, right before they're out of view. Can we take a selfie? No, was their answer. Fair enough. No, take a selfie. No, was their answer.

Jay Franze: 41:03

Fair enough. No, no, and it was pretty solid. No.

Shari Rowe: 41:08

Pretty solid, no.

Jay Franze: 41:09

Okay, I just want to point out you said you don't have any crazy stories and then you see you get pulled over by the cops. I'm thinking maybe someplace in Utah or someplace you know it's stateside. You talk about being pulled over by cops in germany yeah, okay, that's insane to begin with, but how scary was that honestly, it was very scary I didn't know what was happening, you know it's like, and we didn't have our translator with us and this was the end of tour.

Shari Rowe: 41:32

We got the bus driver, that's it. So yeah, it was. It was scary, for sure. Poland wasn't scary, though. In general poland, people love country music. In Poland. Those crowds were great Like. We've been there a couple times and we're planning to go back in 2026, and I love it Do you think country music's more received over there than it is over here, more well-received well-received.

Shari Rowe: 42:07

There's a genuine like, there's a genuine excitement that I don't think we could see here. I mean it's like they're like. They're like Christmas morning excited. It's new to them. They love Americans, I mean so. My grandparents were born and raised in Poland. I never met them because they passed when my mom was young. So I love the heritage. That's a huge part of who I am. But it's just so exciting just to like they want to hear me talk. They think I have a cool accent and I'm like you got it wrong. I'm like no, but they really do. They get very excited about American culture and the American dream and country music and they're very intrigued by it.

Jay Franze: 42:46

All right Now. I know you've got plenty of a career left to go, but what's been the biggest setback to this point?

Shari Rowe: 42:54

Oh man. Well, I hate to throw the old COVID word in there, but honestly, 2019 was great. It was a rough year, you know. So I don't know that was for everybody, obviously, but I think, outside of that, I think it's the times that I, instead of using life's challenges to propel me, the times that I've let them slow me down. You know whether it was you know, and not that they should or shouldn't you know, cause, I mean, everybody goes through things in their own way and that's you know. We can't really dictate that. You know, we're human.

Shari Rowe: 43:36

But, looking back, I wish sometimes I would have kind of just dug in. And so, you know, I've had some challenges. Recently my mom passed and you know different things happening in the family, like within the last year, and I have found myself in a different mindset. This time. Things have been hard, but I knew that I could either kind of go inward and just kind of stop things and kind of put things on hold, put things on pause, which sometimes there's a time for that but this time I didn't want to look back and wish that I had not stopped, so instead I I kind of hyper focused on the creative side of what I do, and even if that wasn't always in the public eye, I was always kind of trying to keep that momentum going and it's been really healing for me. And now, coming out on the other side of it, I've got some songs that I'm really happy with. I try not to let that be a setback this time.

Jay Franze: 44:40

No, I get that, and it's going to be tough to lose your mother, you know, especially after losing your father, and you had that challenge when you lost your father, and it takes you a while to get back in the groove and then it happens again. It's going to be hard to fight that, to stay in the groove this time.

Shari Rowe: 44:58

Yeah.

Jay Franze: 44:59

So I've lost both my parents. I can understand how that's tough, it is tough. Yeah, it's not only tough on you personally, but just everything that's around you.

Shari Rowe: 45:10

Yeah.

Jay Franze: 45:10

So, absolutely. All right. Well, let's talk about the, the audience, for a minute. You play these shows and you're playing all over the world, so what are you doing to grow and connect with the audience? I?

Shari Rowe: 45:26

like crowds, I like the meet and greets, you know, and I I think accessibility is important.

Shari Rowe: 45:49

Even if I haven't been constantly putting new content out, I genuinely love connecting with people when they comment or message or and I've met even. You know, I met some young kids out on the road at meet and greets and I still am talking with them on Instagram and they'll randomly message me. I even have a few that message me when they're going through stuff and it's like I really value the stuff that goes beyond the show and I also think, coming alongside different organizations that are doing great work in any number of ways. That's always been really important to me to stay connected with people. I think it's just it's really cool to have those big moments and those moments when you feel like the whole room is with you when you're on stage and like you can feel the room change when the music changes, and I love all that part of the relationship. But the stuff that goes on after that is really special. You know, that's the stuff that I don't know just gets into your heart less in a different way.

Jay Franze: 46:50

Do you think a lot of that's because of where and how you grew up.

Shari Rowe: 46:55

Probably. Yeah, I mean I think I think anytime, cause we all go through things and I think it's you know what we do with that is really important, and I think it can, it can shut us down because I mean, life can be really hard sometimes. I mean all of us, you know, none of us are strangers to difficulties in life. I think it's just you know what you do with it and I, I don't know, I just I'm determined to find a way to use these things for good. I just I don't know, I mean I, I I love what it does, I love I can see it, you know, I can feel it. You know, when you're with somebody or you're talking with somebody, or you know they find themselves in a song that you wrote, or I mean all of that is very real to me, like that matters.

Jay Franze: 47:44

So what do you hope they take away from your music and your performances?

Shari Rowe: 47:51

I mean, hopefully, you know, at minimum, a little escape and some fun from just like the heaviness of life. You know, initially music does that for all of us and I think at minimum that. And then beyond that, maybe you know that little nudge to persevere when they're having a hard time. And you know, do what they want to do, do what they feel they're made to do, cause I think that's a huge part of like me getting through a lot of things I have gone through in life is, you know, find what you love to do, and that may not be music, it could be anything. Find what you love to do and don't give up on that Like just you know. That is. You know we're made to do what we do. You know we're made we're made to do what we do and and when we identify that and and dive into it, we're our best selves for everybody. I think you know.

Jay Franze: 48:49

That's a great message. I have three daughters and I try to instill that message on them every day.

Shari Rowe: 48:55

Yeah.

Jay Franze: 48:56

All right. Well, we do this thing here we call unsung heroes, where we take a moment to shine the light on somebody who works behind the scenes or somebody who may have supported you along the way. Is there somebody that you'd like to shine a little light on?

Shari Rowe: 49:22

with me and she's been on the road with me off and on and she's currently raising her kids and she works at their school. She's a single mom. She is one of the best moms I've seen. She loves music and loves the music industry and she has toured with different artists and she's run merch for people and she's you know, when she was out with me, she knew she's run merch for people and she's you know, when she was out with me, she knew, you know every social media moment to catch and she was thinking of everything and she was the runner and she was everything you know and she was so great at it and she genuinely loved everybody in the band and loves us and loves me and my biggest supporter and fan. And now she's like she's doing. She's doing the work raising those babies and they're wonderful kids and, yeah, I just appreciate all the time and effort and love she's invested in what we do.

Jay Franze: 50:13

Thank you, allie. All right, well, folks, we have done it. We have reached the top of the hour, which does mean we have reached the end of the show, if you've enjoyed the show. Please tell a friend, and if you have not tell two, you can reach out to both of us over at jayfranze. com. We will be happy to keep this conversation going. We're happy to keep any conversation going.

Shari Rowe: 50:37

You know, Sheri, my friend, I would like to leave the final words to you, all right. Well, thanks for everybody joining in. Jay, thanks for having me on the show. I loved it. I got new music coming out soon. So, as I said, I love connecting with people online. Shoot me a message, ask me some questions. I'll do my best to answer.

Jay Franze: 50:52

All right, folks On that note have a good night.

Tony Scott: 50:56

Thanks for listening to The Jay Franze Show. Make sure you visit us at jayfranze. com. Follow, connect and say hello.